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Heat Transfer & Phase Change Blog Posts

Heat Transfer & Phase Change Blog Posts

Did you know that the COMSOL Multiphysics® software allows you to have different discontinuous meshes in neighboring domains? Although the usual default behavior of the software is to use aligned meshes, there are times when we might like to have discontinuous meshes, such as for modeling conjugate heat transfer. Let’s delve deeper into this topic and see how these meshes can save us time and memory in our initial model development with just a little bit more effort.

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Even though the first man-made light source used thermal radiation, the effect wasn’t fully understood until the discovery of quantum mechanics. Nowadays, it’s a well-known physics concept. In this blog post, we discuss surface-to-surface radiation theory for the so-called gray body, how to implement it in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, and an interesting use of this theory.

Categories

After a pleasant day at the beach, you open your car door. It’s warm inside the vehicle, but it’s nothing a little air conditioning can’t fix. Then you sit down. The seat is burning hot, making for an uncomfortable ride home. Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid this scenario: Engineers can use thermoelectric devices that leverage the Seebeck and Peltier effects to control the temperature of car seats (among other applications).

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Guest blogger Bojan Jokanović of SGL Carbon GmbH, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of carbon-based products, discusses the optimization of thermal processes in the carbon industry. Carbon products are used in many industries, including semiconductors, car manufacturing, ceramics, and metallurgy. Properties of graphite including high-temperature stability, good thermal and electric conducting behavior, and high chemical stability make this material unique. However, carbon manufacturing is an energy-intensive industry. We must build digital process chains to optimize processes and minimize costs.

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Guest blogger Mandar Gadgil of Noumenon Multiphysics discusses modeling phase change in a thermosiphon. Thermosiphons have been used for keeping houses warm since the 1800s. These devices use central heaters and pipe networks that carry water and steam to different rooms. The cool part (figuratively) is that no pump is needed for fluid transport — convective currents induced by the heater located at the bottom of an installation are enough. Let’s discuss modeling thermosiphons using a “pseudofluid” with temperature-dependent properties.

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Due to their small size and efficiency, compact heat exchangers are used in many application areas, including HVAC, nuclear power, and electronics. To help increase heat transfer rates and reduce pressure drops in these devices, a large number of studies have been performed, exploring concepts such as incorporating a deforming wall into the design. Using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, you can evaluate a dynamic wall heat exchanger design.

Categories

Imagine that you’re indoors during a thunderstorm, watching raindrops trickle down the window. Despite the storm, you remain dry and warm thanks to the building envelope protecting you from the outside environment. To design a well-functioning building envelope, engineers need to account for a variety of different factors. Simulation can help address this need.

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Efficient, cost effective, and environmentally friendly, friction stir welding (FSW) is useful for many applications. As the name implies, this process involves using friction to heat materials and then stirring them together. For optimal FSW performance, the generated heat has to be just the right temperature: Too high and the materials melt, weakening the weld; too little and the process is inefficient. Using the COMSOL® software, you can evaluate and improve heat transfer in the FSW process.

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Nonisothermal flow combines CFD and heat transfer analysis. In cases where the temperature of the fluid at an inlet is a known quantity, a Temperature boundary condition can be used. However, there are some important situations where this is not the case, and an Inflow boundary condition can improve the model accuracy and reduce the computational cost of the simulation. Here, we review how this more sophisticated thermal boundary condition can be set at a flow inlet.

Categories

Additive manufacturing has a wide array of applications, such as creating custom medical devices, aerospace components, and artwork. With the list of potential uses continuing to grow, it’s important that this type of manufacturing can keep up with the demand. However, analyzing and optimizing this complex process can be difficult. What can engineers do to overcome this challenge?

Categories

Natural convection is a type of heat transport found in engineering applications of all sizes. For instance, this phenomenon helps maintain a reasonable temperature in both small electronic devices and large buildings. No matter the application area, design engineers can use the COMSOL Multiphysics® software to model natural convection in air for both 2D and 3D geometries.

Categories

Even though the first man-made light source used thermal radiation, the effect wasn’t fully understood until the discovery of quantum mechanics. Nowadays, it’s a well-known physics concept. In this blog post, we discuss surface-to-surface radiation theory for the so-called gray body, how to implement it in the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, and an interesting use of this theory.

Categories

Imagine that you’re indoors during a thunderstorm, watching raindrops trickle down the window. Despite the storm, you remain dry and warm thanks to the building envelope protecting you from the outside environment. To design a well-functioning building envelope, engineers need to account for a variety of different factors. Simulation can help address this need.

Categories

After a pleasant day at the beach, you open your car door. It’s warm inside the vehicle, but it’s nothing a little air conditioning can’t fix. Then you sit down. The seat is burning hot, making for an uncomfortable ride home. Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid this scenario: Engineers can use thermoelectric devices that leverage the Seebeck and Peltier effects to control the temperature of car seats (among other applications).

Categories

Efficient, cost effective, and environmentally friendly, friction stir welding (FSW) is useful for many applications. As the name implies, this process involves using friction to heat materials and then stirring them together. For optimal FSW performance, the generated heat has to be just the right temperature: Too high and the materials melt, weakening the weld; too little and the process is inefficient. Using the COMSOL® software, you can evaluate and improve heat transfer in the FSW process.

Categories

Guest blogger Bojan Jokanović of SGL Carbon GmbH, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of carbon-based products, discusses the optimization of thermal processes in the carbon industry. Carbon products are used in many industries, including semiconductors, car manufacturing, ceramics, and metallurgy. Properties of graphite including high-temperature stability, good thermal and electric conducting behavior, and high chemical stability make this material unique. However, carbon manufacturing is an energy-intensive industry. We must build digital process chains to optimize processes and minimize costs.

Categories

Nonisothermal flow combines CFD and heat transfer analysis. In cases where the temperature of the fluid at an inlet is a known quantity, a Temperature boundary condition can be used. However, there are some important situations where this is not the case, and an Inflow boundary condition can improve the model accuracy and reduce the computational cost of the simulation. Here, we review how this more sophisticated thermal boundary condition can be set at a flow inlet.

Categories

Guest blogger Mandar Gadgil of Noumenon Multiphysics discusses modeling phase change in a thermosiphon. Thermosiphons have been used for keeping houses warm since the 1800s. These devices use central heaters and pipe networks that carry water and steam to different rooms. The cool part (figuratively) is that no pump is needed for fluid transport — convective currents induced by the heater located at the bottom of an installation are enough. Let’s discuss modeling thermosiphons using a “pseudofluid” with temperature-dependent properties.

Categories

Additive manufacturing has a wide array of applications, such as creating custom medical devices, aerospace components, and artwork. With the list of potential uses continuing to grow, it’s important that this type of manufacturing can keep up with the demand. However, analyzing and optimizing this complex process can be difficult. What can engineers do to overcome this challenge?

Categories

Due to their small size and efficiency, compact heat exchangers are used in many application areas, including HVAC, nuclear power, and electronics. To help increase heat transfer rates and reduce pressure drops in these devices, a large number of studies have been performed, exploring concepts such as incorporating a deforming wall into the design. Using the COMSOL Multiphysics® software, you can evaluate a dynamic wall heat exchanger design.

Categories

Natural convection is a type of heat transport found in engineering applications of all sizes. For instance, this phenomenon helps maintain a reasonable temperature in both small electronic devices and large buildings. No matter the application area, design engineers can use the COMSOL Multiphysics® software to model natural convection in air for both 2D and 3D geometries.